About three years ago, I started reading about the benefits of going shampoo-free. I was extremely curious, but the condition of my scalp made me nervous and stopped me. I have been a ‘wash-my-hair-daily‘ girl since I was about 13. As a teen/young adult, my scalp was oily, and during my first pregnancy, I developed some form of psoriasis or eczema on my scalp that never went away, except with the use of special shampoos. (Doctors were never sure of what it was, nor did they take it very seriously.)
In the meantime, my hair has been chemically and heat damaged, and I’m pretty sure that hormones are wreaking some serious havoc on it as well. I wasn’t sure what else to do with it, so I decided to just try it. I wish I could say that I did it for totally noble reasons – like saving the environment, or avoiding adding toxins to my body. Don’t get me wrong – those factored into it. But really? I’m just a curious person. I’ve been dying to know what my hair would do if I tried this.
So here I am.
I’m on Day 16* of this experiment. Days 1, 2 and 3 were uneventful, except for the fact that I spent a lot of time smelling my hair, expecting it to smell awful, only to realize it had a pleasantly fresh scent to it. In fact, I’ve absolutely loved my hair, until 2 days ago. I overdid the baking soda on Monday, and I’ve spent the last couple of days trying to ‘normalize’ it. There is a transition period, as the scalp adjusts to not being stripped of natural oils on a daily basis, so I’m trying to just go with it. Ponytails and braids have been my friends during this time.
I’ve been sharing updates on Twitter and Facebook, and have gotten so many questions about ‘why’ and ‘how’. So, I’ve decided to write more about it here, on the blog. I’m working on a FAQ on it, and I’m trying to get it posted as soon as I can and I thought I’d also work on posting some updates throughout the process.
If you have any questions, be sure to leave them in the comments.
*corrected timeframe. I’ve always sucked at math…
